Comics, Blah! Back for 2013!

Check out the Legend of Ricky Thunder, a web comic about wrestling. Pretty cool. http://robotmountain.tumblr.com/

Andy?

HEY! Howzabout them Comic Books! Sorry I haven’t updated for a while, I have has some issues with my reading glasses and my work schedule and a general malaise about comics that have come out recently etc. etc. etc.

But this week is all about the positives. Here are reviews of some of the very best comics[and a few clunkers] that have come out in the last few weeks.

YOUNG AVENGERS is a book I have been looking forward to for quite a long time. This Marvel book reunites the creative team from PHONOGRAM {Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie] and also sports a nifty cover by some kid names Brian Lee O’Malley [finally getting a Marvel break} that restarts the Young Avengers title with some returning characters as well as some interesting new additions [like Lori and Marvel Boy]. This is a really interesting set up, reintroducing the characters before sending them out on wacky adventures. I am fans of both creators and PHONOGRAM was one of my favorite books so I am hoping this does well.

The new STAR WARS book from Dark Horse by Brian Wood has gotten off to a very huge start [the sold out of the first two printings and have gone to a third]. This is an interesting idea, setting the book two weeks after the first movie, and focusing on Princes Leia as the new leader of the Rebellion. Wood really plays to his strength here, by focusing on the woman in the group, and showing here as a more capable leader than as a damsel in distress. It’s an interesting experiment in that the reader knows what happens next but the characters don’t know what’s coming up. Really enjoying this.

MARA is another new book from Brian Wood, this time from Image. It’s a creator owned tale of a pro volleyball player set in the near future of a fascist country. AND….it didn’t really do anything for me. I am a huge fan of Brian Wood so I will pick up the 2nd issue [this is a mini-series] but there wasn’t really any hook to the first issue. Don’t get much of a backstory or creator thoughts on this as you do with THE MASSIVE [which is one of my absolute favorite books right now].

SAVAGE WOLVERINE is an excuse for Frank Cho to draw dinosaurs and Shanna the She Devil. Nothing wrong with that, as Frank Cho is a brilliant artist who is very very good at drawing Dinosaurs and “cheesecake” style women. It nice that this story starts cold—Wolverine is dropped into the Savage Land—doesn’t know why or how he got there. Kills a few dinosaurs, kills some cavemen, runs into Shanna, gets a backstory on the situation, and kills a few more dinosaurs. It’s a fun book but I don’t know if its worth sticking around.

SUPERIOR SPIDER MAN is a book that gets a lot of hype and has a lot of people talking and a book I’m probably done with. Just to break out all sorts of spoilers—Doc Octopus is dead, BUT before he died he switched “minds” with Peter Parker, so now he running around as a more sinister version of Spider Man—except of course Peter Parker’s mind is still in there “somewhere” and wont let Otto go too far. So far I have read three stories with this new Spider Man and already I am sick of the idea. I really do like Dan Slott and think he’s a very good writer, and Humberto Ramos is a fantastic artist. But this is an idea that will run it’s course in a year or so and be forgotten quickly after that. It is neat for a story but it doesn’t have the legs for a continuing series.

MASKS is a comic series I am really liking right now. I know a lot of folks bailed on this after Alex Ross left after the first issue [which was gorgeous] but this is just such a neat series, combining a lot of Golden Age Pulp heroes in one title, that I am really enjoying this. I love the fact that the Shadow never breaks character or really opens up to the other “heroes”. The storyline itself is kind out there, but then again a lot of those pulp storylines were kind of out there.

BATMAN DEATH IN THE FAMILY is really going strong in the main book, with a fantastic sequence of Batman confronting a “court” of his rouges. The BATMAN & ROBIN book has also been very interesting, dealing with how Damian is fighting the Joker [let’s be honest all things being equal if Damian ends up killing the Joker here no body would be surprised]. BATGIRL has also been particularly strong. Some of the other titles—admittedly books I don’t get regularly—have been bad. For instance I pre ordered the new issue of RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS and it was pretty bad. Happy to see this wrap up next month.

What’s not working is the GREEN LANTERN crossover. I am ready to just dump all of these books. I am down to the main book and GL CORP and this whole rigmarole has really run its course. This is a bad bad example of DC “stretching out a storyline” to make me ambivalent to the whole storyline. I am having the same problem with SWAMP THING and ANIMAL MAN and haven’t even bothered to read the last issues. Two of my favorite DC characters and I am ready to drop these. Thanks DC.